1976–77 Northern Rugby Football League season

{{Infobox rugby football league season

| title = 1976–77 Northern Rugby Football League season

| league = Northern Rugby Football League

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| season_champs = {{leagueicon|featherstone|16}} Featherstone Rovers

| season_champ_name = Champions

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| premiership_win = {{leagueicon|St Helens|16}} St. Helens

| premiership_win_name= Premiership

| MVP = {{leagueicon|Leeds|12}} David Ward

| MVP_link = Man of Steel Award

| top_scorer = {{leagueicon|castleford|12}} Geoff Lloyd 341

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| top try scorer = {{leagueicon|Widnes|12}} Stuart Wright 31

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| prevseason_link = 1975–76 Northern Rugby Football League season

| prevseason_year = 1975–76

| nextseason_link = 1977–78 Northern Rugby Football League season

| nextseason_year = 1977–78

}}

The 1976–77 Northern Rugby Football League season was the 82nd season of rugby league football. Sixteen English clubs competed for the Championship, with Featherstone Rovers claiming the title.

Season summary

In July 1976, the Rugby League Council imposed a ban on players moving to Australian clubs on short term contracts unless a transfer fee was paid.{{cite news |title=Fees now needed |work=The Guardian |date=6 July 1976 |location=London |page=18 |id={{ProQuest|185920701}}}}

In April 1977, the League's executive committee recommended as of next season that points difference should be used to determine league position for teams level on points, instead of points average.{{cite news |title=The League stand by Mills |work=The Guardian |date=22 April 1977 |location=London |page=21 |id={{ProQuest|185990440}} }}

The League Champions were Featherstone Rovers for the first and, to date, only time. During the season, the Salford versus Leeds match was abandoned after 38 minutes when Chris Sanderson of Leeds suffered a fatal injury. Leeds were ahead 5-2, but the game was declared null and void and not replayed.

Rochdale Hornets, Leigh, Barrow and Oldham were demoted to the Second Division.

The Challenge Cup Winners were Leeds who beat Widnes 16-7 in the final.

2nd Division Champions were Hull FC, and they, Dewsbury, Bramley and New Hunslet were promoted to the First Division.{{cite web|url=http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=397|title=1976-77 Season summary|access-date=2009-08-08}}

League Tables

=First Division Championship=

style="width:20px;" abbr="Position"\| !width=175 \|Team ! style="width:20px;" abbr="Played"\|Pld ! style="width:20px;" abbr="Won"\|W ! style="width:20px;" abbr="Drawn"\|D ! style="width:20px;" abbr="Lost"\|L ! style="width:20px;" abbr="”Points" For”\|PF ! style="width:20px;" abbr="”Points" Against”\|PA ! style="width:20px;" abbr="Points"\|Pts
class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
style="text-align:center; background:gold;" \|1	Featherstone Rovers	30	21	2	7	568	334	44
style="text-align:center; background:#e1e1ff;" \|2	St. Helens	30	19	1	10	547	345	39
style="text-align:center; background:#e1e1ff;" \|3	Castleford	30	19	1	10	519	350	39
style="text-align:center; background:#e1e1ff;" \|4	Hull Kingston Rovers	30	18	1	11	496	415	37
style="text-align:center; background:#e1e1ff;" \|5	Warrington	30	18	0	12	532	406	36
style="text-align:center; background:#e1e1ff;" \|6	Salford	29	17	1	11	560	402	35
style="text-align:center; background:#e1e1ff;" \|7	Wigan	30	15	2	13	463	416	32
style="text-align:center; background:#e1e1ff;" \|8	Bradford Northern	30	15	2	13	488	470	32
style="text-align:center;" \|9	Leeds	29	14	2	13	467	439	30
style="text-align:center;" \|10	Widnes	30	15	0	15	403	393	30
style="text-align:center;" \|11	Wakefield Trinity	30	13	2	15	487	480	28
style="text-align:center;" \|12	Workington Town	30	13	1	16	352	403	27
style="text-align:center; background:#fcc;" \|13	Rochdale Hornets	30	11	0	19	367	449	22
style="text-align:center; background:#fcc;" \|14	Leigh	30	8	1	21	314	634	17
style="text-align:center; background:#fcc" \|15	Barrow	30	8	0	22	345	628	16
style="text-align:center; background:#fcc;" \|16	Oldham	30	7	0	23	322	666	14

=Second Division Championship=

style="width:20px;" abbr="Position"\| !width=175 \|Team ! style="width:20px;" abbr="Played"\|Pld ! style="width:20px;" abbr="Won"\|W ! style="width:20px;" abbr="Drawn"\|D ! style="width:20px;" abbr="Lost"\|L ! style="width:20px;" abbr="”Points" For”\|PF ! style="width:20px;" abbr="”Points" Against”\|PA ! style="width:20px;" abbr="Points"\|Pts
class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
style="text-align:center; background:#cfc;" \|1	Hull	26	22	1	3	599	238	45
style="text-align:center; background:#cfc;" \|2	Dewsbury	26	19	2	5	429	199	40
style="text-align:center; background:#cfc;" \|3	Bramley	26	19	0	7	464	377	38
style="text-align:center; background:#cfc;" \|4	New Hunslet	26	17	3	6	411	231	37
style="text-align:center;" \|5	York	26	17	0	9	422	279	34
style="text-align:center;"	6	Keighley	26	16	1	9	486	235	33
style="text-align:center;" \|7	Huddersfield	26	13	0	13	397	329	26
style="text-align:center;" \|8	Whitehaven	26	11	1	14	290	346	23
style="text-align:center;" \|9	Huyton	26	11	0	15	302	402	22
style="text-align:center;" \|10	Halifax	26	10	0	16	301	429	20
style="text-align:center;" \|11	Swinton	26	8	2	16	261	406	18
style="text-align:center;" \|12	Batley	26	7	1	18	262	461	15
style="text-align:center;" \|13	Blackpool Borough	26	5	1	20	233	464	11
style="text-align:center;" \|14	Doncaster	26	1	0	25	243	704	2

Cups

=Challenge Cup=

Leeds beat Widnes 16-7 in the final played at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 7 May 1977 in front of a crowd of 80,871. The winner of the Lance Todd Trophy was the Leeds prop, Steve Pitchford.{{cite book |title=Rothmans Rugby League Yearbook 1995-1996 |author1=Raymond Fletcher |author2=David Howes|year=1995|publisher=Headline Book Publishing |location=London |isbn=0-7472-7817-2|page=199 }}

This was Leeds’ tenth Cup Final win in fourteen Final appearances.{{cite web|url=http://www.therfl.co.uk/challengecup/page.php?areaid=65 |title=RFL Challenge Cup Roll of Honour |access-date=2009-08-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090403144113/http://www.therfl.co.uk/challengecup/page.php?areaid=65 |archive-date=2009-04-03 |url-status=dead }}

=County cups=

Widnes beat Workington Town (from Cumbria) 16–11 to win the Lancashire County Cup, and Leeds beat Featherstone Rovers 16–12 to win the Yorkshire County Cup.

=BBC2 Floodlit Trophy=

BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Winners were Castleford who beat Leigh 12-4 in the final.

=Player's No.6 Trophy=

Players No.6 Trophy Winners were Castleford who beat Blackpool Borough 25-15.

=Premiership=

Rugby League Premiership Trophy Winners were St. Helens who beat Warrington 32-20.

Sources

[http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=397 1976-77 Rugby Football League season at wigan.rlfans.com]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090403144113/http://www.therfl.co.uk/challengecup/page.php?areaid=65 The Challenge Cup at The Rugby Football League website]

References

Category:1976 in English rugby league

Category:1977 in English rugby league

Category:Northern Rugby Football League seasons